Heroes Not Zombies

When I started this blog, many years ago, I called it “heroes not zombies” to capture the idea that we are all the authors and central characters (heroes) of our own stories but if we aren’t aware of that then we tend to drift through life on autopilot, driven by the actions and desires of others in a society of sleepwalkers (zombies).

Right from the start I put a subtitle under the main heading – “becoming not being”.

This photo is a good example of why I continue to use that subtitle. It’s taken from my garden, looking over the surrounding vineyards towards the horizon. In this one image we can see bright sunshine, dark storm clouds and several fingers of rain reaching down from the sky to soak the earth below.

It’s an image which can’t be reduced to a single element without diminishing it. What makes it so beautiful, so attractive, so engaging, is the presence of all the elements together…the sunlight, the storm clouds, the rain.

What kind of day is this?

A sunny day? A stormy day? A rainy day?

Or all of the above and more?

This day can’t be reduced to a label. We can’t say it “is” this or that. This day is “becoming”, evolving, changing, developing. It’s multiple and diverse and multi-dimensional.

This day, like all days, is “becoming not being”.

So am I. So are you. So is all of life. So is this planet Earth and the Universe which stretches away in every direction at once.

I’m uncomfortable with labels, with rigid boundaries of time and space. I’m uneasy with categories and classifications, with the tendency to put “others” into separate boxes. I’m suspicious of “outcomes” and “goals” and “endpoints”.

I prefer to be aware of connections, of flow, of change, dynamics and relationships. I prefer not to judge, dismiss or ignore.

Wherever I look I see multiplicities. I find puzzles, curiosities, peculiarities. I see uniqueness. I see that nothing ever ends because everything, every moment, every experience is becoming something else, flowing from the present into the future and changing my understanding of the past.

I see that life is a continuous, complex process of becoming. I don’t see life as a series of separate unconnected units.